Boston becomes the second US city to tap-in to London’s contactless fares revolution

The main entrance to the Green line at Haymarket station. Image: WikiBoston has been named as the next US city to incorporate London’s market-leading contactless fares technology after the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) hired payments firm Cubic to modernise its ticketing system.

The ten year contract will see Cubic partner with John Laing PLC to design and build a next generation ticket and billing system which will allows passengers to pay for their journeys using contactless bank cards and mobile services such as Apple Pay.

As with Cubic’s recently announced New York contract, the MBTA deal will see the firm deploy elements of the contactless fares system designed in-house by Transport for London.

First introduced in 2012, TfL’s system has been credited with driving consumer take-up of contactless and has seen the agency become one of Europe’s largest contactless retailers with more than a billion transactions.

TfL opted to design and code its system in-house after assessing a number of existing commercial solutions which were ultimately deemed to be too retail-centric or inflexible.

Since launching, the system has been updated to accept a number of mobile-based payment options including Google Wallet and Apple Pay.

Last year TfL signed a non-exclusive licensing deal with Cubic which allows the firm to incorporate its code in return for royalty payments of up to £15m.

“This is a significant win for Cubic, because the MBTA – until now the largest U.S. transit agency that was not a Cubic customer – has selected us for its next- generation fare payment system,” said Matt Cole, president of Cubic Transportation Systems.

“We are proud and honored that the MBTA has chosen to partner with us on this critical project.”